This invention relates to the field of sealing members and, particularly, to those sealing members having means for aiding in the retention of a substrate therein.
Various solutions have been proposed for gripping and sealing a substrate. Among these are Ustin U.S. Pat. No. 2,870,239, Koblitz U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,724 and German OS No. 2,645,934, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein. In Ustin, there is disclosed a cap having a retaining member therein. The retaining member has resilient projections extending inwardly from the rim of the retaining member to grip a substrate. Koblitz and the German reference also disclose projections or barbs which serve to grip a substrate.
However, none of these references appear to have attempted to optimize the performance or describe the specific geometry of the retaining member.
Ackerman U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,295, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, while not disclosing sealing, does disclose the adjustment of the retention member projections; however, there is only disclosed two angular adjustments -45.degree. and 90.degree. with respect to the central axis of the part. Matthysse U.S. Pat. No. 3,019,284, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, suggests modifying the free ends of the projections by adding teeth or by staggering the free ends.
Other retention members of peripheral interest are disclosed in Owen U.S. Pat. No. 2,264,480, Fuller et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,914 and Melton U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,231, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Toy U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,832 discloses a sealing device comprising a flexible envelope, a gel and retaining means such as teeth or a crimp ring. Uken U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,717 discloses a gel-filled cap and retaining means consisting of a crimp ring. Both of these disclosures are incorporated by reference herein.
While these last two references disclose a sealing device having a gel and a retaining means, again there is no attempt to optimize the performance or describe the specific geometry of the retaining means.
It would be desirable to have a sealing device wherein the retaining means is optimized so that a substrate, particularly a jacketed conductor, could be easily inserted within the sealing device and yet be firmly held therein.
Thus, it is an object of the invention to have a sealing device and retaining means wherein the performance of the retaining means is optimized.
This and other objects will become more apparent after referring to the following description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.